Maradi, Niger - Behind the high, brown wall of a clinic run by a Muslim charity, nurses care for hundreds of hungry children. Down the road 150 meters (yards), members of a Christian congregation discuss how to stretch funds collected at Sunday services to help more of the poorest in drought-stricken, overwhelmingly Muslim Niger.
"There is no rivalry between the two communities," said Abdou Laouali, permanent secretary of the 250-member Evangelical Church of the Republic of Niger. "We are working toward the same objective."
Niger, which is 95 percent Muslim, has seen little of the tensions and even Muslim-Christian violence of neighboring Nigeria. But international aid workers like Bishir Ismael Brahim know they are under scrutiny after allegations elsewhere of Islamic groups funneling some of their funds to terrorists or spreading fundamentalism.
Brahim, dispatched from the Kuwaiti-funded Center for Muslims in Africa's Kenya offices to respond to the hunger crisis in Niger, said the West misunderstands Islam and is unfairly suspicious of everything Muslims do.
"I can assure them that a hungry stomach has no ears," he said. "So, whatever they can imagine we are telling these people, is falling onto deaf ears."
"What we are doing here is purely humanitarian ... I came to save lives," said Brahim, sitting on a sofa in one of the agency's offices.
The organization was founded in 1981 and is run with financial support from the Kuwaiti government. It has been working in Niger since 1986, but increased its activities here because of the hunger crisis. It is active in 34 African countries, building schools, mosques, health units, water facilities and also caring for orphans.
The group, which has former Kuwaiti Cabinet ministers among its directors, has passed the Kuwait's governments increased scrutiny of such organizations following allegations of links between terrorists and charity groups. Kuwait has removed unlicensed kiosks that collected donations on the streets and instituted an independent auditing system.
Some Muslims complain that crackdowns by the United States as well as Arab governments have left them wary of donating, troubling as giving alms is a central Islamic tenet.
Among the other Islamic groups working in Niger is the Burbank, California-based Islamic Relief organization. U.N. agencies like the World Food Program and UNICEF rely on the Center for Muslims in Africa and Islamic just as they rely on Christian and secular international groups to distribute food and medicine in Niger.
Drought and severe locust invasion last year has left some 3.6 million people in this country of 11.3 million faced with severe food shortages. Children are most at risk, with some 800,000 aged under 5 years need to be fed urgently.
Growing numbers of families are seeking help at the Center for Muslims in Africa's high-walled clinic in Maradi, 660 kilometers (410 miles) east of the capital, Niamey. Maradi has become a hub for aid agencies in Niger.
Brahim recently helped set up another branch in Zinder, some 270 kilometers (160 miles) north of Maradi.
With the number of children in need of treatment continuing to rise, Abdelkak Azeroual, another Center for Muslims in Africa coordinator, approached the World Food Program two weeks ago to seek assistance. On Saturday, WFP started delivering 250 tons of sorghum for the Center for Muslims in Africa to distribute.
"We feed everyone without distinctions, religious or others," Azeroual said.
"Ask them," he said, pointing at a group of women sitting on the sand with their children resting on their thighs or desperately sucking empty breasts. "You will certainly find some animists, Catholics. The food here is for everybody."
Only the cook and a handful of women in the courtyard responded to the noon call to prayer.